Q11

[jiehaep]

11. (E)
Question Type: Identification (17-20)
This question requires that we simply identify supporting text in the passage. Unfortunately we must examine each answer choice before going to the passage, but a solid understanding of the main idea and passage structure can aid in quickly identifying the appropriate lines. Choice (E) is mentioned almost verbatim in paragraph 2: "she notes that in her youth she could sense many of the great themes and subjects of poetry..."
(A) is an unsupported interpretation. Nowhere in the passage are traditional forms upheld as ways to confront poetic tradition.
(B) is a contradictory interpretation. Gluck is repeatedly described as believing in the universal.
(C) is an unsupported interpretation. Just because the poets mentioned are part of a male-dominated tradition does not mean that tradition is 100% male.
(D) is a contradictory interpretation. In the final paragraph Gluck is described as believing literature is never neutral and free from historical and social context.

[rpcuhk]

(D) took me some time to eliminate. But the last paragraph told us that Gluck "holds that to the extent that there are some gender differences that have been shaped by history, they will emerge in the differing ways that women and men write about the world". This seems to suggest that Gluck thinks woman and men write differently.

[ttunden]

whats the best way to do this question?

go answer by answer and refer to text? or reread parts of the passage that talk about gluck?

[christine.defenbaugh]

whats the best way to do this question?

go answer by answer and refer to text? or reread parts of the passage that talk about gluck?

Thanks for asking, ttunden Rereading every portion of the passage that talked about Gluck would force you to re-read the entire passage, I'm afraid!

This identification question does not give us a line reference, quote, or even particular idea to go hunt for in the passage. Because those signals are simply missing, there's no map for us to go back to the passage to mine it for specific references first. We really have no practical choice but to dig into the answer choices immediately.

We should be able to eliminate many of them just based on a solid understanding of the passage. Once we get it narrowed down to say, two, we'll want to hunt for support for either of those two remaining answer choices. But now, we'll have a guide where to look - the answer choice itself gives us the clues!

Let's say we had it narrowed it down to (D) and (E). To find try to find support for (D), we should look to paragraph 4 - that's the only place we really see Gluck's perspective on the act of writing. However, when we get there, we find (as rpcuhk did above) that Gluck does believe that gender differences may present in the writing.

When we then turn to (E), and we are pointed immediately to the first sentence of paragraph 2, which is almost verbatim support.

So, in a question like this, with no signals of where to look for data in the passage, we have no choice but to work answer-by-answer. If we can narrow it down, we can then use the few remaining answers to guide us to find support in the passage for one!

Does that clear up your question?

[AshleyT786]

So just because she will address universal themes, it doesn't mean she will write in a gender neutral way? Where can we see explicit evidence that she will still write as a female